The story has been remarkable for two reasons. First, for the pure depravity of the alleged crimes. According to Army prosecutors, a small group of soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division who were deployed to Afghanistan in 2009-10 went spectacularly, murderously rogue. According to prosecutors, they engaged in …
Af-Pak
Researchers in Afghanistan Stumble Upon a Natural Wonder
The Pentagon often cites Afghanistan’s vast untapped mineral wealth when asked how, exactly, the country’s government will fund its security forces when the coalition leaves. The reality, of course, is that it will be several decades before any of those underground resources ever see the light. But there is another wealth to be found …
New Wikileaks Cables Reveal India Foreign Policy Tensions
The Indian newspaper The Hindu has published an absorbing, multi-story Wikileaks package today about 5,100 diplomatic cables covering everything from India-Pakistan relations after the November 2008 terror attacks to the end of the Sri Lankan civil war and influence-peddling in Nepal. There are also some revealing behind-the-scenes …
Civilian Casualties on the Rise in Afghanistan, But Not Because of Coalition Forces
When NATO forces accidently killed nine Afghan boys gathering firewood to heat their family homes last Wednesday, it marked a low point in a war that has already had its share of horrific mistakes. From wedding parties to religious school compounds, civilian casualties have been as much a part of the war as IEDs and donkey-borne …
Global Briefing, Mar. 7, 2011: War Crimes, People Power and Governments Behaving Badly
Forgotten Genocide: In the New York Times, New Delhi correspondent Lydia Polgreen reports from Bangladesh about the country’s belated efforts to investigate the massacres that led up to its independence in 1971, when over a million people (up to three million, by some estimates) may have been killed by the Pakistani army and its Bengali …
Afghanistan’s Buddhas Can Be Rebuilt. But Should They?
Ten years ago next month, the world watched in horror as Afghanistan’s Taliban regime blew up one of the ancient world’s most inspiring works of art: two standing Buddha statues, one at 125 feet and the other at 180, that had been carved in a cliff face in the remote Bamiyan valley. Within days the Taliban had all but decimated the …
How Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws Are Tearing The Country Apart
In a sign of Pakistan’s increasing instability gunmen attacked and killed Pakistan’s minister for religious minorities earlier this morning. Shahbaz Bhatti, a member of Pakistan’s minority Christian community, had been vocal about Pakistan’s draconian anti-blasphemy laws. And he is not the first: in January, Salmaan Taseer, the …
The Raymond Davis Affair: Are CIA and ISI Ties Doomed?
On Swampland, TIME contributor Mark Benjamin blogs about the breakdown between Washington and Islamabad over the planned trial of Raymond Davis, a U.S. CIA agent responsible for the deaths of three Pakistanis in the city of Lahore. U.S. officials are frantically trying to broker a deal that will avoid a public trial in Pakistan. Benjamin …
Defensive Position: Cameron Tells Karzai Why Troop Cuts Will Make UK Stronger
Sometimes press conferences involve as much diplomacy as, well, diplomacy. Before British Prime Minister David Cameron and Afghan President Hamid Karzai emerged from their London bilateral at lunchtime today, a Downing Street official told assembled journalists that a tight schedule permitted only two questions to the leaders. This did …
Why Pakistan Is in No Mood to Back Down in U.S. Showdown
Raymond Davis, meet Aaron DeHaven. Davis is the U.S. diplomat — or alleged CIA contractor, depending on which account you believe — arraigned on murder charges in Lahore, with Pakistan thus far unmoved by his claim of diplomatic immunity following a shooting incident that left two Pakistanis dead. DeHaven is a security contractor …
How India Views the Raymond Davis Case
It has been fascinating to watch New Delhi’s reaction to the Raymond Davis case. For all the unknowns about the CIA’s contracted spy detained in Lahore on murder charges, Davis’ arrest, the U.S. reaction and the furious Pakistani backlash seem to have made it plain that the relationship between the CIA and ISI is broken, as Kathy …
Broken Promises: How We Failed Afghanistan’s Girls
Imagine that nine years ago, a rich philanthropist decided that your community needed an elementary school. He constructed a nice building, furnished it with desks and blackboards, and maybe even gave you a playground. Now imagine that the school was right in the middle of a vicious turf war between two rival gangs. The teachers at the …